Most often, a given community chose the so-called scapegoat – one woman who was somehow different from the rest, and she was accused of witchcraft. Years later, historians discovered that the greatest driving force behind hundreds of murders committed against women were neighborhood motives. The “witch”, in the neighbors’ minds, was supposed to be responsible for various everyday failures, crop failure, illness of a child or someone close to her, or even completely trivial events. It often happened that a woman simply came into conflict with someone and her fate was sealed.
Neighborly accusations quickly took the form of official accusations, so usually a completely innocent woman was sentenced to death almost immediately. However, what came before it was a real nightmare. The content of the accusation was absurd and irrational, so the accused was forced to plead guilty. This was done through brutal torture to which the accused were subjected for hours. The pain was so unimaginable that the tortured women often simply died during the torture. If they survived the ordeal, it usually ended with a death sentence by burning at the stake.
Polish “witches” were sentenced to hell. They endured hours of torture
Although people associate sentences for witchcraft and burning at the stake mainly with British Salem, the persecution of women who dealt with e.g. broadly understood herbalism or simply got under the skin of someone in the neighborhood community also reached Polish lands at the turn of the 16th and 17th century. He talked about it, among others: in an extensive interview for prof. Ph.D. Jacek Wijaczka from the Faculty of Historical Sciences of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.
In Toruń itself, as the expert said, witchcraft convictions were passed. – Witchcraft trials took place in Toruń, but the so-called the books of blood in which they were described, so we do not know their exact course. Witchcraft trials in Toruń took place even during the Enlightenment. However, the judges were a bit more lenient, the city physicists were better educated and they simply knew that there were natural causes and phenomena behind the alleged witchcraft (e.g. inflicting disease). In the 16th and 17th centuries, death sentences were issued in Toruń, he said.
“The gallows stood on the hill”
– The gallows stood on a hill near Bielany. Whether alleged witches were burned there, I’m not sure. We know that in 1678, one of the women was burned at the stake outside the then village, and today’s district, Mokre. In Toruń, probably one of the few cities in Poland, women convicted of witchcraft were not only burned, but also drowned in the Vistula – said the professor.
It is difficult to estimate how many women in Poland lost their lives in this way. Jan Wijaczka, who is also the author of the book “You Will Not Let Witches Live”, stated in one of the interviews that “during World War II, the city books of many towns in Małopolska were burned.”
Books containing information about witchcraft accusations and trials. The preserved trial files are also very often incomplete. Even the interrogation protocols are missing
– he described.
The torture practices were extremely cruel. The historian cited the examples of four women who died in unimaginable suffering due to completely grotesque accusations. They all came from the village of Falmierowo in Greater Poland. Katarzyna Błachowa, Katarzyna Derlin and Regina and Barbara from the village of Gromadno were burned at the stake after many hours of torment. They were tormented to such an extent that at the end of the torture she decided to inform on one another, at the same time passing sentences on each other.
In the above-mentioned interview for the Nicolaus Copernicus University website, prof. Wijaczka lists the types of torture used in Poland. – We must remember that Polish towns were poor and had an agricultural and craft character, and therefore torture chambers such as those in Nuremberg did not exist at all. Trials were most often held at remote sessions in villages, and the accused were very rarely transported to the city. When the executioner came to the countryside, the simplest method was dragging – the hands were tied behind the back with a rope, which was thrown over a beam and the “witch” was pulled or stretched on a ladder. In the West, sometimes the executioner tied stones to the legs to intensify the pain, he described.
Witch hunt in Poland. Arson, sulfur and “Spanish shoes”
– We know that tortured people were still burned under their arms, in their private places and on their sides. They were poured with alcohol and set on fire, and sulfur was also used. These were the simplest methods used in Polish witchcraft trials. In some, such as in Toruń, Spanish shoes also appeared – metal structures with screws that tightened on the foot and shins, crushing them – he added.
Many people after going through three rounds, if they were able to endure them, were crippled for life. In addition, there were psychological wounds. Moreover, most were sentenced to death. In very rare cases, women withstood this torture. Men, if they were captured by the executioner at all, generally gave in after the second torture
– we read.
Source: Gazeta
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